


something you do.

by LiveLaughLovex



Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: AU: Canon divergence, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 07:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16081322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: They’ve been apart for nearly six years when he suddenly reappears in her life. And, when he does, it's three simple words that cause their story to begin all over again.





	something you do.

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this story comes from a quote: "Love isn't just something you feel; it's something you do." It takes place in a fictional world after seasons two/three. And Lillian isn't some strange allusion to Lillian Forrester; obviously, Fitz has no idea she exists in this. It's just a very pretty, very popular name. If, like me, you want to know her full name, it's Lillian Katherine. I've decided Katherine was Fitz's mother's name. 
> 
> Naomi, who is mentioned only once, is Naomi Scott. She's an original character I've written into multiple stories. Putting her full name down in this one, considering its placement, didn't seem right, so I left out her last name. 
> 
> That should be all. As always, I own nothing.

They’ve been apart for nearly six years when he suddenly reappears in her life. He doesn’t show up at her front doorstep, nor do they run into each other on the subway, both headed in the same direction on the same day at the same time. Life is nothing like a romantic comedy. It doesn’t happen like that at all. Instead, early one Saturday morning in May, Quinn thrusts the section of the New York Times dedicated to engagement announces under her nose less than five minutes after she walks into the office, and she is met with his beaming face.

It’s not entirely unexpected. Jake Ballard is not a man who spends his life waiting around for women who would not do the same for him. He’d told her as much, back when things were simpler, when they were nothing more than two friends on the precipice of something more. She’s been waiting for something like this since the day she used the cruelest of words to force him from her life. She’s surprised by her surprise. More than that, she’s surprised by her heartbreak.

Quinn looks at her in the same concerned way Olivia’s seen her look at her children – there are three of them running around now, all replicas of their father with their mother’s dark curls and bright, hopeful eyes – and it very nearly makes her scream. Quinn worries about things, even the ones she is in no way capable of fixing. She is who she is, and Olivia’s never, not even once, wanted to change her. At this precise moment, however, the fixer is considering the possibility that just a bit of change might actually be called for.

“I’m fine,” she insists, well aware the other woman is not going to accept her words at face value. She’s got to try, though, because if Quinn keeps looking at her like she is at the moment, with eyes so full of sadness and regret over decisions she herself had no hand in making, then Olivia may punch a wall, and while they’re certainly not hurting for money, it would do nobody any good for the rent payments to go up.

Quinn nods, but she doesn’t leave. Instead, she sinks onto the sofa directly in front of Olivia’s desk with a long-suffering sigh. “Abby found it this morning,” she informs her boss lightly, her eyes focused on the Van Gogh painting Olivia’s got hanging on the opposite wall. “She didn’t want to be the one to tell you, so I volunteered.” She tilts her head slightly, her eyes narrowing. “I guess we were both expecting more of a reaction than we got.”

“It’s been six years,” Olivia says logically, her impatience towards her friend beginning to show on her face. “It’s not like I was expecting him to wait around forever.” She laughs quietly when Quinn shoots her an incredulous look, but the sound holds nothing more than regret and bitterness. “It’s not as if I can judge him for getting married. I’ve done much more than that since we saw each other last.”

She’s so tired suddenly, but not in a way sleep could ever fix. She’s been somebody’s spouse in the time they’ve been apart. She’s now a divorced single mother who shares custody of a three-year-old with a man who has never known how to keep his promises. It’s something she’s grown used to over the years. It’s something she knows her daughter never will. It’s something that too often makes her want to commit felonies. And, worst of all, it’s something that almost constantly makes her miss Jake and ponder after what could have been.

Her phone rings before Quinn can challenge her rational explanation, and she picks it up without glancing at the Caller ID, more thankful than she should be that their conversation has been interrupted. It’s Lily’s preschool teacher, calling to tell her that her toddler is sick, and, predictably, that Fitz hasn’t answered any of the calls they’ve made to his personal line.

“Sorry,” she says as she turns to the brunette after the call ends, “but Lily’s not feeling well, and the teacher doesn’t want any of her germs to spread to the other kids.” Quinn’s a mother. If there’s one thing that’ll always get Olivia out of uncomfortable conversations, it’s a sick child.

“All right,” Quinn says hesitantly, standing from the sofa to return to her own office and get to work on the week’s case. “But just know that, if you ever do want to talk, I’ll always be around to listen.” With that, she exits the room, closing the door softly behind her and leaving Olivia alone with her thoughts.

Lily’s asleep in the nurse’s office when Olivia arrives, and she snoozes right through the transfer from her teacher aide’s arms to her mother’s. Olivia presses a kiss against the toddler’s forehead, wincing sympathetically when she realizes her daughter’s skin is sticky with sweat, and then carries her to the sedan, loading her into the car seat in the back with an ease that’s come only after many months of practice.

She’s halfway home when she finally turns on the radio. The announcer is discussing Fitz’s newest romance, some young lawyer with assets that extend far beyond her degrees from Yale and Harvard, and she can’t hold in the scoff that bubbles up behind her lips. The man’s eventually going to have to realize that he must remain far, far away from lawyers. His type may include brilliant women, but, at least for him, psychologists always have been and always will be just where it’s at.

Lily’s still asleep when she carries her into her brightly-colored bedroom, and she’s left alone with her thoughts for much longer than she’d like to be. She wants to pick up her phone, to call her ex-husband and tell him to get in touch with Naomi, to insist that at least one of them should emerge from this divorce emotionally intact and on the road to happiness, but she doesn’t. Instead, she dials a number she’s not seen in seventy-two months, one she should’ve deleted years ago. She hits the icon, and then she waits. Lately, it seems all she really does is wait.

He doesn’t pick up. Of course he doesn’t. She’s certain she’d ignore the call if she were on the other end of it, as well. Still, she leaves a message. She’s already come this far, and her father didn’t raise her to abandon the mission at the very last possible moment.

“Jake,” she says once the beep sounds. After his name leaves her lips, she finds herself frozen. She’s not at all prepared for this. Then again, she’s not prepared for much at all these days. “It’s Olivia. It’s…” She trails off, shaking her head slightly. “It’s been a while, I know, but I saw your announcement in the Times, and I…” Once again, it takes longer than she’d like for the words to come to her. “I just want you to know that I’m happy for you. You deserve this more than anyone else I’ve ever known. So, please, for the sake of my sanity, marry this woman and be the happiest you possibly can be. Knowing that you are is the only thing that’s going to distract me from the fact that I’m not.”

She wants so badly to continue, to tell him she’s sorry about what happened the last time she’d seen him, to promise him she’s not the person she was back then, but the beep sounds before she can, and when she’s asked if she’d like to delete the message, she hits the button that signals she’ll leave it the way it is. Maybe it’s not the epic, apologetic goodbye she’d wanted him to have waiting for him, but it’s something. After all she’s put him through, he deserves at least something.

It’s almost seven o’clock when Lily finally wakes, bleary-eyed and hungry as she reaches up for Olivia and snuggles comfortably into her mother’s shoulder. Olivia sits through two showings of _Tangled_ before the toddler is finally content enough to be carted back to bed. She’s halfway through her second glass of wine and her third episode of _The Good Wife_ – a guilty-pleasure show she’d been introduced to by Abby – when the phone on the end-table rings. When she picks it up, she almost doesn’t believe the name flashing across the screen.

“Jake,” she answers breathlessly, her eyes slipping closed of their own accord as she leans back against the sofa.

“Hey, Liv,” he returns simply, his voice as calming as it’s always been, one of very few shelters amongst the many storms.

It is with those three words that their story begins all over again.


End file.
